The Phantom of the
Opera is a special musical to me. It’s been a huge part of my life for about
nine years and I thank it for bringing me to the world of musicals. It’s been
with me nearly half of my life and I love it. I love it to death. I’ve been
lucky enough to see the original production in London three times. I’ve seen a
non-replica production in Tallinn, Estonia (and I have another ticket to that
for next spring). Both the original and the Estonian production I loved when I
saw them. What about the non-replica in Helsinki, done by the Finnish national
opera?

I hated it.

Yes. I hated it.
The production had lost ALL that makes the musical so wonderful for me. The
production brought up all the weaknesses of the musical and drowned the best of
it. This I mostly blame on the direction of Tiina Puumalainen. It didn’t focus
on characters and their arcs. The show lacked flow. The scenes felt separate
from each other.

Show like The
Phantom of the Opera needs great visuals and costume design to work. It’s meant
to be a spectacle. The sets of Teppo Järvinen had its moments but mainly it was
very boring. The costumes of Marjaana Mutanen were something I didn’t expect to
see on this level. And by this level I mean the National opera. The costumes
reminded me of high school productions of the show. There were only a few
costumes I liked. But even those costumes and the sets didn’t go well together.
The worst was “Masquerade”. The set was actually good and I really liked the
staircase but the costumes? They didn’t go along at all. Black and white themes
costumes which lacked the grand design of the original production. The lyrics
at the scene go “Take your fill - let the
spectacle astound you!” Sorry, that didn’t happen. At least not to me.

And the chandelier? Reminded
me of Christmas ornaments. Not kidding. But the fall was nice enough.

As for the portrayals of the
characters I had grown to love so much? Hanna-Liina Võsa was nice as Christine.
But she lacked backbone. The story was no longer about her and how she grows as
a person to let go of her father’s memory and say no to the Phantom who has
controlled her. It was not about Christine’s choice between Phantom and Raoul
and her father.

Ilkka Hämäläinen as Phantom…
His greatest moment was during the overture when he just stood in the middle of
the stage. That was the moment Phantom was most present in the whole show. It
was his most threatening moment. Hämäläinen sings well. Acting could have given
me more. The Phantom was like an angry preteen who didn’t get what he wanted.
Or toddler who gets angry when he doesn’t get candy. And Phantom lacked
presence. In the original the story is made scary with Phantom being present
all the time. Even when you didn’t see him you could believe he was there
haunting the place. In this production Phantom was present only when he was on
stage. And he wasn’t threatening at all.

Olli Tuovinen was to me
perhaps the best of the three. And then came the second act and I had to give
that place to Võsa. He started with what fans call “superhero Raoul”. But the
second act was shouting to thin air and him being just so angry. He wasn’t a
young man in love with a girl from his childhood. When the final decision for
Christine came, I wouldn’t have chosen Raoul. He became violent and not someone
who would keep her safe and love her. Nor would I have chosen Phantom but you
know, he was a murderer and a stalker.

The highlight of acting were
Kaisa Ranta as Carlotta Guidicelli and surprisingly Arto Hosio as Monsieur
Reyer. The first knew when to be funny and gave the character dimension. The
latter gave a very one dimensional character more personality than anyone I
have seen in the role before.

To me the most problematic
thing was, in the end, the direction. The national opera had resources to make
this one of the grandest productions of Phantom ever. They have a large
ensemble with awesome ballet dancers? Did they make this their strength? No.
The ballet scenes were cut short for unnecessary humor. The lack of movement
was a big flaw in the production. People tended just to stand on stage and not
move. There was no expression in movement.

What about the good stuff? The
orchestra was grand. They were awesome. The orchestra is the largest in a
Phantom production ever and it paid off. Even though I have to say that me and
my friend, who like me is a big fan of the musical, both couldn’t help laughing
for the castanets in The Point of no return.

I paid a good price for my
seats in the 4th row. But I wish I didn’t. With the money spent to
travel to see the musical and get the ticket could have get me tickets to the
original production. And a covered a good amount of the travel expenses. The
production sold out before the premiere and I am glad I won’t have a chance to
see it again. Even though I wonder how the show would have been with different
leads as the show is double casted.

I can’t wait to see the
Estonian production again with direction I liked a lot more than this one. And I wish for the next chance to see the original splendour.